Viking

About Viking

Viking, originally The Viking Press, is an American publisher founded in New York City in 1925 by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer, and it is now an imprint of Penguin Random House in both the United States and Britain.

In August 1925 the new firm merged with B. W. Huebsch, Inc., and the combined business traded as The Viking Press, Inc. In 1933 it opened a children's department under the editor May Massee; its first title was The Story About Ping (1933), and Viking's children's list went on to include The Story of Ferdinand and Make Way for Ducklings. The adult list included John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Saul Bellow, Arthur Miller and Graham Greene, and Viking also ran the Viking Portable Library.

From 1979 Viking was the American hardback publisher of many Stephen King novels, including The Dead Zone (1979), Cujo (1981) and Different Seasons (1982).

Penguin bought Viking in 1975 for a reported 12 million dollars, after which the American company traded as Viking Penguin. Viking is now owned by Penguin Random House, while in Britain Viking is a Penguin General imprint.

How to spot a Viking first edition

• Viking first printings carry no printing statement beyond the publication line, while later printings are recorded on the copyright page with their number or date, so any reprint note means a later printing.
• From the late 1930s onwards first printings typically read "First published in [year] by The Viking Press" (later "by Viking Penguin Inc.") or "Published in [year] by The Viking Press" on the copyright page; Viking's Stephen King firsts of 1979 to 1987 follow this pattern.